Legislature Announces 2024 Joint Legislative Budget Hearing Schedule

Senate Finance Committee Chair Liz Krueger and Assembly Ways and Means Committee Chair Helene E. Weinstein today announced the joint legislative hearing schedule on the State Fiscal Year (SFY) 2024-25 Executive Budget Proposal.

These hearings, each of which focuses on a programmatic area of the Executive Budget Proposal, are intended to provide the appropriate legislative committees with public input. The hearings will be available for viewing on the Senate and Assembly websites. The Legislative Channel (on cable systems throughout the state) also will carry the proceedings.

In accordance with the schedule, the hearings will commence on January 23 and conclude on February 14. The respective state agency or department heads will begin testimony each day, followed by witnesses who have requested to testify on that area of the budget.

Due to time constraints related to provisions of the New York State Constitution concerning the approval of the state budget by April 1, only a limited number of witnesses can be accommodated at any given hearing. The committees will endeavor to permit as many interested parties to testify as possible, ensuring that a wide range of views are presented, and will attempt to avoid redundant testimony where possible.

Requests to testify must be made by submitting a Hearing Request Form. The Hearing Request Form can also be found on both the Senate and Assembly websites at www.nysenate.gov and www.nyassembly.gov, respectively.

In order to afford ample opportunity to be heard, please note that no person or entity will be permitted to testify at more than one hearing. However, any person or entity is permitted to submit written testimony for any hearing. For individuals not testifying, written testimony must be submitted no later than 5 p.m. on the day of the corresponding hearing to financechair@nysenate.gov and to wamchair@nyassembly.gov.

The submission of written testimony for anyone who is requesting to testify must be done in compliance with the chart set forth below. Witnesses who have had their requests to testify accepted by the committees are required to send a copy of their written testimony via email no later than the dates listed in the chart below to both financechair@nysenate.gov and to wamchair@nyassembly.gov. No one will be permitted to testify unless testimony is emailed to the committees accordingly and received by the due date listed in the chart below. Due to the heavy volume of written testimony received, once submitted, no modifications of the submitted testimony will be accepted. Please note that these requirements will be rigidly enforced at the discretion of the committees and failure to submit written testimony in a timely manner will result in exclusion from the final witness list. Witnesses also must indicate in the subject field of the email containing their written testimony which hearing their testimony relates to.

Witnesses are strongly encouraged to summarize their key points in their oral testimony, and not simply read from their written testimony. Witnesses must limit their oral testimony to no more than three minutes, after which time they should be prepared to entertain questions from legislators.

The agency and the departmental portion of the hearings are provided for in Article 7, Section 3 of the Constitution and Article 2, Section 31 of the Legislative Law. The State Legislature is also soliciting public comment on the proposed budget pursuant to Article 2, Section 32-a of the Legislative Law.